


Night Journey

by 7veilsphaedra



Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25622398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/7veilsphaedra/pseuds/7veilsphaedra
Summary: A little stardust
Relationships: Kyouraku Shunsui/Ukitake Juushirou
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Night Journey

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whymzycal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whymzycal/gifts).



> Drabble, 510 words complete.  
> Prompt: “Ukitake/Shunsui, autumn leaves and/or constellations”

Roujin-sei, the Old Man star, gleamed on the horizon. Shunsui caught his breath. He had received all the information as it streamed in from the new satellite telescopes which penetrated past the earth’s atmosphere, that it was the second brightest star next to Tenrō, the Celestial Wolf, which owed most of its dazzle to the fact that it was a binary star, but his mind would disconnect. When science sought to dissect the stars and number them and assign radio collars to them like tracking all the grains of sand on the beach, his mind could not go there. Facts told him nothing about how the white brilliance of a single star could reach all the way across the millions and millions of light years and vast distances of the cosmos simply to dance in the strands of Ukitake’s hair. He held his breath at the wonder of it.

And Ukitake, magnificent as he was, had no idea he was so annointed. 

He was stretching languidly across the grass, however, his thin arms extending from the sleeves of his cream-coloured yutaka like pale enoki mushrooms rising from the forest floor. There was a slight curl at the edge of his lips, though, and a definite twinkle in his eye. He knew the effect this was having on Shunsui. 

Shunsui took this as a challenge and reached over to press sake-flavoured lips to pliant lips in a face that was always hectic with colour these days. He ran his tongue delicately over them before sitting up again, turning his face toward the shadows of the forest in order to hide troubled thoughts from this dearest one, who did not need to be burdened with them.

Ukitake knew. He always knew. With a light laugh, he sat back up and reached over to the paper shell with its cargo of fresh takoyaki covered with sauce and far too many bonito sprinkles. Slivers of pickled ginger and umaboshi were scooped up with the fried octopus in order to cut the bonito taste. He popped it in his mouth with many delightful “mms” and “fffs” and outbreaths of joy and, after he swallowed, announced to Shunsui, “I am so happy to be here with you at the end of days.”

Shunsui swallowed his regret. Here he was a shinigami, centuries old, and he still hadn’t learned that life was fleeting. If he had been wise — truly wise — he and Ukitake would have lived every night like this one, bathed in starlight, drinking in the sounds and scents of the night, lying under the blanket of the entire universe. Was this what the light of Roujin-sei had crossed the galaxy to tell him?

Since this was all the time they had left, he moved the takoyaki and the bottle of sake to the other side of Ukitake, and hunkered down next to his body. He stopped and listened and felt. Soon, he heard the heartbeat and the breath, felt the thinning warmth, the last rays of this great star pulsing against his skin.


End file.
